Stranger Things 3: Chapter 9 - Love Will Not Be Denied
by snowzone5
Summary: One shot. Slight AU. Fixing S3 Ep8 with short chapter 9


**A/N: Sorry. Ep8 sucked for me. Someone else will do a way better version of fixing it, but for now, here's a short Chapter 9 that kind of does the same thing.**

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Six months was not enough!

After she'd closed the gate, she'd only had six months with her friends… with Mike before the threat of the Upside Down had taken over their lives again.

She regretted letting Max tell her to dump Mike. Max didn't love Lucas the way El loved Mike. Not even close. Max had dumped Lucas five or six times and enjoyed Lucas crawling back to her every time. One day she would regret that. Lucas would find it wasn't worth it.

That night with Max spinning the bottle and spying hadn't been the only time she'd peeked in on Mike. When she'd done it later on that night, he'd been crying saying he was sorry.

She knew he would _never_ lie to her. She knew it had to be something important for him to feel like he needed to. It turned out she was right. But she still let Max keep her from forgiving him.

She got angrier at Max the more she thought about it. She wasted what little time she had left, time she didn't even know she had left, not being with him. Not kissing him.

And now Mrs. Byers was taking them away. Jonathan away from Nancy, Will away from his friends, and her away from Mike. What was she going to do? She couldn't be without him. Not after all they'd been through.

After she'd read the letter from her dad, she didn't think she had ever cried that hard. But a few minutes later she had, saying goodbye to Mike a second time had been the hardest thing she'd ever done. He had put on a brave face. She knew he'd done it for her. Even though they had talked about upcoming visits. It just wasn't going to be the same.

Damn it. She _needed_ him! What was the point of being in love with someone if you couldn't be with them _all_ the time.

Her tears had been so heavy they collected against the car window as she leaned her face against the glass.

This wasn't going to work.

She was grateful that Mrs. Byers had taken her in. Now that her dad was… gone. And the cabin destroyed, she needed to live _somewhere_. It couldn't be with Mike… could it? Would his parents even consider something like that? She didn't think so. Grown ups could get past the age of two young people in love. They didn't understand it at all. They gave it stupid names like _puppy love_ or _infatuation_. Grown ups were _stupid._ They just didn't get it. They would never understand how she and Mike felt about each other.

Because of their age, she and Mike had no say in the matter. She felt like her dad had been wrong about at least one thing in his letter. Pain is not good. Not this kind of pain. She didn't need to feel like this and Mike didn't either. They'd done nothing to deserve it. El knew that life wasn't always fair, but she was sure that she'd paid her price. Twice, three times, more now. She deserved to be happy and she was going to do something about it.

XXXXX

"Mom? El's taking a long time in the bathroom, we need to get going if we want to find a place to stay for the night." Jonathan yelled to his mother.

They had stopped at a gas station to fill up, get snacks and a bathroom break. El was the last unaccounted for.

Joyce was a little bit worried so went to the side of the station and went inside. El was sitting sobbing in front of the sink.

"El, sweetie, get up off the floor, it's a little disgusting." The look on El's face as it turned up to look at her was shocking. Her face was soaked with tears, her makeup was a mess. Joyce would have been amazed if there was were any tears left for her to cry out. She didn't know what to do, but she had an idea.

"I'm suh-suh-sorry… I c-can't leave Mike. I just can't."

"I know sweetie. It was selfish of me to think you'd be ok… I don't know what I was thinking. Next town I'll put you on a bus to Hawkins. I'll make sure it's ok for you to stay at the Wheelers."

The look of hope on El's face was too much for Joyce and she pulled El into a hug and started crying herself. "Hop told me you two couldn't be without each other, he didn't understand it. I thought he was overreacting. I see now that he wasn't. You need to be with Mike."

XXXXX

She said she loved him too!

Now he wished he'd actually said it, and not skirted around what he really wanted to say.

When they had all said goodbye, Mike had seen El crying uncontrollably. If he had gone to her they would have had to drag her into the car before they could leave.

He knew the day was coming, they had only been together for the next three months after the battle in the mall. He'd spent most of their time together holding El and comforting her. The kisses where simple, affectionate, sure, but everyone of his had _ I love you_ in it. He was sure that El knew that.

The first night after she left, he cried himself to sleep. At least he thought he slept, he could only remember crying. His eyes felt like there was grit in them the next morning. How was he going to live without her?

Thanksgiving and Christmas. Mike gave himself a derisive snort the first time he thought of it. The visits would be hard on both of them. Sure they'd get all the alone time they wanted, but then they would… lose each other _again_. That wasn't right. They would be better off not visiting at all. It would be too painful.

He regretted not telling he loved her every time he had the chance. He didn't really care if Hopper found out. Hopper didn't get it anyway. He had no idea what Mike had gone through. Well, maybe a little bit… when El had come back he'd found out that Hopper had hidden her for almost a year, Mike was mad, he'd punched Hopper in the stomach a few times. Called him a piece of shit.

Mike knew that was fair either, Hopper was just doing what he thought was best for El. He admitted to himself that Hopper loved El. Not as much as he did, but a lot. And now he was gone, and they couldn't be together so he could comfort her whenever she needed it.

So he cried himself to sleep the first night. And the second night.

And the third.

For the whole week. He had no appetite, He didn't want to hang out with the rest of the Party. What was now left of it.

Mike was truly alone. Sure, he'd get to talk to El probably every night once the Byers had gotten settled. But even that was going to be painful.

He had tried going to all the places that he and El used to hang out, but after the third spot, he just sat down and cried for the rest of the day. He didn't think it was possibly to cry an entire day, but now he knew it was. His throat was raw, his face was sore from grimacing the entire time. His eyes were dry and felt like sandpaper every time he blinked.

Maybe when he found out where they lived he could run away and be with El? No. His mother would just come and get him. He couldn't legally do anything.

He was stuck in Hawkins.

Mike had guessed that it was about a week after she left. He was restless. He alternated between mindlessly turning pages in a comic, and crying jags. Thankfully the rest of his family left him alone.

Trying to keep busy, he found himself making, re-making the blanket fort… but this time it would be big enough for the two of them, even now that they were older and and grown a bit.

Once he'd finished he was overcome with emotion and crawled into it to cry some more.

"Michael! You have a visitor!" He could hear someone coming down the stairs.

Lucas was probably crawling back to Max for the sixth or seventh time, it couldn't be him. Dustin would be hanging out with Steve today. "I can't do anything today. I can't do _anything_ anymore." Not without El. No point otherwise.

He heard a sniff. "Can... can you hold me?"

Mike head shot up. "El?"

He sat up in the blanket fort.

El rushed into his arms, "Mike," she breathed, sighing and crying at the same time.

"Just hold me."

"It has to be forever this time El. I can't do this again."

"It will be forever this time Mike. I promise."


End file.
